WELCOME TO THE CFZ BLOG NETWORK: COME AND JOIN THE FUN

Half a century ago, Belgian Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans first codified cryptozoology in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are still on the track, and have been since 1992. But as if chasing unknown animals wasn't enough, we are involved in education, conservation, and good old-fashioned natural history! We already have three journals, the largest cryptozoological publishing house in the world, CFZtv, and the largest cryptozoological conference in the English-speaking world, but in January 2009 someone suggested that we started a daily online magazine! The CFZ bloggo is a collaborative effort by a coalition of members, friends, and supporters of the CFZ, and covers all the subjects with which we deal, with a smattering of music, high strangeness and surreal humour to make up the mix.

It is edited by CFZ Director Jon Downes, and subbed by the lovely Lizzy Bitakara'mire (formerly Clancy), scourge of improper syntax. The daily newsblog is edited by Corinna Downes, head administratrix of the CFZ, and the indexing is done by Lee Canty and Kathy Imbriani. There is regular news from the CFZ Mystery Cat study group, and regular fortean bird news from 'The Watcher of the Skies'. Regular bloggers include Dr Karl Shuker, Dale Drinnon, Richard Muirhead and Richard Freeman.The CFZ bloggo is updated daily, and there's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Come and join us...

Even in modern times, stories of sea monsters fascinate us and taunt
our minds with incredible possibilities. Could it be that tremendous
reptiles–dinosaurs, in essence–could still exist on our planet, and inhabit the
darkened waters of our ocean’s depths?
A classic story related by the marine scientist Lionel Walford in 1963 would
indicate that something along these lines appears to be the case. In
July of the aforementioned year, Walford and his company claimed to have seen a
50-foot-long, undulating serpent-like creature, observed as it swam near the
surface only a few miles off the New York shoreline. “It resembled a transparent
sea monster. It looked so much like jelly. I could see no bones and no eyes,
nose, or mouth. But there it was, undulating along, looking as if it were almost
made of fluid glass.”
What was the creature that Walford and his crew had seen? In many ways, the
translucent quality the animal possessed is reminiscent of what are known as
leptocephalus, the scientific name for eel larvae. However, the larvae
form of the eel is never known to grow to such great sizes, let alone the parent
animal when fully grown. In other instances, the animals are far more serpentine
in both color as well as appearance, the likes of which we often find in
historical accounts that leave us wondering whether dinosaurs might not actually
exist in our very midst.

DUBLIN—The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland said Monday it’s investigating how a priest offering a presentation to parents on their children’s upcoming first Confessions instead ended up showing them a computer slide show of gay porn.

The leader of Ireland’s four million Catholics, Cardinal Sean Brady, said the priest involved insists he didn’t know how the explicit images got on the memory stick he intended to use for his PowerPoint presentation to families at St. Mary’s Primary School in the Northern Ireland village of Pomeroy.

In an article for the first edition of Cryptozoology Bernard Heuvelmans wrote that cryptozoology is the study of 'unexpected animals' and following on from that perfectly reasonable assertion, it seems to us that - whereas the study of out of place birds may not have the glamour of the hunt for bigfoot, or lake monsters - it is still a perfectly valid area for the Fortean Zoologist to be interested in. So, after about six months of regular postings on the main bloggo, Corinna has taken the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.

The hunt for British Big Cats attracts far more newspaper-column inches than any other cryptozoological subject. There are so many of them now that we feel that they should be archived by us in some way, so we should have a go at publishing a regular round-up of the stories as they come in. In September 2012, Emma Osborne decided that the Mystery Cat Study Group really deserved a blog of its own within the CFZ Blog Network.

Corinna is home, as is mother and the two
new Chinese toads. Even Prudence has stopped sulking. So we are back to normal.
The CFZ exhibition in Barnstaple starts at the
end of next week, the BBC have just interviewed me about the Loch Ness Monster,
the lovely Jess Heard will be here imminently and
Michael Des Barres has a new single out. Life as normal
really...

The Gonzo Daily is a two way process. If
you have any news or want to write for us, please contact me at jon@eclipse.co.uk.
If you are an artist and want to
showcase your work, or even just say hello please write to me at gonzo@cfz.org.uk.
Please copy, paste and spread
the word about this magazine as widely as possible. We need people to read us in
order to grow, and as soon as it is viable we
shall be invading more traditional magaziney areas. Join in the fun, spread the
word, and maybe if we all chant
loud enough we CAN stop it raining. See you tomorrow...

The Gonzo Daily
is - as the name implies - a daily online magazine (mostly) about artists
connected to the Gonzo Multimedia group of
companies. But it also has other stuff as and when the editor feels like it. The
Editor is an old hippy of 53 who - together with
his orange cat - puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a
tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon. He is
ably assisted by his lovely wife Corinna, his bulldog/boxer Prudence, and a
motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention the orange cat?

On this
day in 1971 London Bridge was reopened... in Lake Havasu City, Arazona in the
United States of America. The bridge was sold by the city of London because it
could no longer cope with the amount of traffic expected to cross over it, it
was bought by Robert P. McCulloch as a tourist attraction for his planned city
and transported in sections to the city where it would span a specially
constructed canal. Although a nice bridge, rumour has it that the Americans
originally thought they were buying the iconic Tower Bridge and only discovered
their error far into the sale process. Whatever the truth they must have been
happy with their purchase in the end as it attracted thousands of people to live
in the newly built city and continues to be a big draw for tourists.

The
TV movie “A Bridge Across Time” used the relocated London bridge as a plot
device allowing the ghost of Jack the Ripper to be pitted David Hasselhoff in a
battle of wits (The family friendly editorial policy of the blog prevents me
from saying what kind of 'wits' exactly but it begins with the letter 'F')
:

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This, dear friends is nonsense, but should you want to ensure earlier arrival then you can buy it here, personally autographed for the special discount price of £12.99 (post free in the UK) click the link below:

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CFZ APPEAL

In November Sahar Dimus, our guide on four CFZ Sumatra expeditions, died of liver failure leaving a widow Lucy and four Children. On the 2nd November, Dezyama D. Sangma, wife of our friend and colleague Dipu Marak, our collaborator on the 2010 Indian expedition died, leaving her grieving husband and two small children.

This year's CFZ appeal is to raise money for their two families. Please be generous.